MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES

VARIOUS

Rating:

Original Review: Another cheap CD which I came across completely by accident, but I immediately snapped it up because of the inclusion of the Main Title from Alfred Newman's incredible religious epic The Greatest Story Ever Told. I had been searching for any music from this movie for years and when I read the track listings here I nearly jumped through the roof. In my opinion, The Greatest Story Ever Told is the best religious movie score that was written during Hollywood's golden era, and the track included here - 'Jesus of Nazareth Theme' - is a purler: an emotionally draining, musically brilliant, lump-in-the-throat creating string passage that stirs me every time I hear it. As for the rest of the album, well - of course, it contains a lot of the regulars on compilations such as this, like 2001, El Cid, The Big Country, Ben Hur and Doctor Zhivago, and some of the classics by Ron Goodwin. However, the important things about this album are its rarer tracks. My favourites are Alfred Newman's lively main title from How The West Was Won, Lalo Schifrin's funky whistled theme from Kelly's Heroes, and Ernest Gold's moving theme from Exodus. One thing to note is the sound quality of the CD. On some tracks, especially The Big Country and Ice Station Zebra, the sound seems rather muffled and on the whole sub-standard. This is because the tracks here were taken from the original soundtrack recordings and are not re-recordings (unlike the Silva releases). This means that some of the source material could have been over 50 years old! However, if you concentrate on the quality of the music, I'm sure this minor technical indiscretion can be overlooked.

Track Listing:

Also Sprach Zarathustra from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Richard Strauss) (1:40)
Overture from El Cid (Miklós Rózsa) (3:16)
Main Title from The Big Country (Jerome Moross) (3:22)
Prelude from Ben Hur (Miklós Rózsa) (3:23)
Main Title from How The West Was Won (Alfred Newman and Ken Darby) (1:35)
Theme from Kelly's Heroes (Lalo Schifrin) (2:53)
Main Title from Where Eagles Dare (Ron Goodwin) (3:07)
Theme from Mutiny on the Bounty (Bronislau Kaper) (2:19)
Overture from Ice Station Zebra (Michel Legrand) (2:49)
Overture from Taras Bulba (Franz Waxman) (2:19)
Theme from Hang 'Em High (Dominic Frontiere) (2:58)
Main Title from Doctor Zhivago (Maurice Jarre) (2:40)
Main Title from 633 Squadron (Ron Goodwin) (1:53)
Theme from The Scalp Hunters (Elmer Bernstein) (2:11)
Theme from Exodus (Ernest Gold) (2:50)
Prelude from King of Kings (Miklós Rózsa) (2:31)
Main Title from The Charge of the Light Brigade (John Addison) (3:05)
Main Theme/Jesus of Nazareth from The Greatest Story Ever Told (Alfred Newman) (3:30)
Main Title from The Dirty Dozen (Frank De Vol) (1:29)
End Title from The Battle of Britain (Ron Goodwin) (2:56)

Running Time: 52 minutes 46 seconds

EMI Music for Pleasure CDMFP-5915 (1991)

Home Page | Soundtracks | Soundtrack Reviews | Composers | Soundtrack Links

These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.